Welcome to my 156th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.
1. GCSE Revision
Revision season is upon us! If you’re looking for GCSE revision resources then do check out my recently updated GCSE revision resources page. With over 110,000 views since it was first published in November 2016, it’s my most viewed blog post ever.
If you’re specifically looking for material related to the Summer 2022 Advance Information, then look at @Noni_Rainbow‘s padlet which includes numerous checklists and resources.
@1stclassmaths has generously shared a free set of practice papers for this summer’s exams for both AQA and Edexcel. They are also producing practice papers for AQA L2 Further Maths: Paper 1 is here and Paper 2 is coming soon. Here’s an extract:
White Rose Maths has also published a set of practice papers made specifically for Summer 2022 GCSEs.
And speaking of revision, it was good to see @steelemaths share a thread explaining his approach to GCSE revision this year. It’s worth a read.
2. Dr Austin Maths
At my school we’ve been making a lot of use of resources from draustinmaths.com lately. Although I’ve blogged about these resources a few times before, I know there are still a lot of teachers who haven’t yet discovered them, so do check them out if you haven’t already! Many of them are linked in my resource libraries, but the best way to browse is at draustinmaths.com which has recently been upgraded to improve the navigation functionality.
Resources are now grouped by topic, for example you can view the surds resources here and the averages resources here. Here’s an example of a resource I recently used with my Year 10s – they found it more challenging than I expected them to (in my experience, students always find bearings surprisingly tricky!).
3. Number Puzzle In her most recent post, @letsplaymath shared a nice number puzzle from the website 1001mathproblems.com.
I’ve featured this website in a gems post before – many years ago – but had forgotten about it. It’s a great website with loads of puzzles which may be suitable for students at Key Stage 2 and 3. Here are a couple more examples: first, Drafters Puzzle #2 which will come in handy if you’re teaching plans and elevations. Students have to work out what the solid looks like:
A related puzzle for plans and elevations is here.
4. Resources Here are some examples of the lovely resources that have been shared on Twitter recently.
@alcmaths shared an activity on error intervals and numbers lines. For some reason I have never thought to do this before – next time I teach error intervals I will make sure I include number lines!
You can download this resource, and many more, from Amie’s blog.
@nathanday314 shared a resource for comparing coefficients in identities, including algebraic fractions. The editable PowerPoint is here and the PDF is here.
@drpas1001 had a great idea for an exercise to get students reasoning with area and perimeter of circles and sectors. You can download it from TES.
@giftedHKO shared a fantastic ratio task to get students thinking about which statements are always, sometimes or never true.
@hartmaths wanted his Year 11 students to show more detail in their working so he took a set of past Edexcel Higher GCSE questions and made them into ‘show that’ questions. You can download this resource here.
5. A Level Calculator Tips
@BicenMaths has published a video containing top calculator tips for A Level maths. This covers both the fx-CG50 Graphics and the fx-991EX Classwiz models (skip to 31 minutes for the Classwiz). This will be helpful for students taking A Level maths, and also for teachers who are new to using these calculators.
Update
The Easter conferences are a grand tradition in maths education. Before the days of the internet, they were the primary mechanism for teachers, researchers and other members of maths education communities to come together and collaborate and develop the profession. I’m a big fan of these conferences and am really looking forward to the MA Conference next week. The first two days are online and the final day is in Stratford-Upon-Avon. It’s not too late to get a ticket! There are loads of fantastic sessions on the programme. Even if you can’t attend next week, buying a ticket for the virtual conference (which is only £15) means you’ll have access to all the online workshops afterwards.
I’m doing the first keynote on Tuesday (I’m very nervous).
If you’re coming to the in-person day in Stratford and you’re staying on the Wednesday night, do join us for pre-conference drinks. We’ll be in the Pen and Parchment from 7.30pm. All welcome – if you don’t know anyone, look out for me – come and say hello.
In other conference news, the MEI Conference is now open for booking. This event takes place in Keele on 30th June and 1st July. It’s always a fantastic conference. I’m looking forward to delivering a workshop on the second day.
Have you got a copy of my book A Compendium of Mathematical Methods? If not, have a look at what education guru Dylan Wiliam says about it. 😀
I like to think I know quite a lot about mathematical methods at school level, but I was blown away by @mathsjem‘s “A compendium of mathematical methods” https://t.co/O5LzpXSeip. It includes every technique I could think of, and dozens more that I didn’t know. Highly recommended.
Finally, a shout out for the Glyn Maths Department! They kindly invited me to their end of term social. We did an Escape Room, which I love! What a fantastic bunch of people.
I’ll leave you with this joke, shared by @OFalafel, which made me smile.
Welcome to my 156th gems post. This is where I share some of the latest news, ideas and resources for maths teachers.
